It's All In Your Head
by KaityDid66
Summary: Short little stories for the new challenge. All dream based. R&R please!
1. Nothing To Be Afraid Of

**A/N: I'm seriously a force of nature that can't be stoped today. XD Anyways, here's my latest one. Part of the challenge set out for us. My first one to be part of. It's the Horror/Tragedy part of the challenge, new chapter coming up soon! As always, I don't own anything, except the Shadowy Figure/Voice guy is all my own. And I've think I've decided that these are all gonna be dream based. Different character each story. And even more of a treat, I'm titling each chapter! YAY! I guess I should stop rambling and let you get reading. R&R please! :)**

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Chapter 1: Nothing to be Afraid of

Tracy was sitting in class, feeling very bored. She hated history. It was by far her least favorite class. She looked around the classroom, she saw IQ rapt with attention hanging on to every word Mr. Flack said about the Revolutionary War. Personally, she didn't care, it didn't seem all that important to her. Her eyes fell upon another student who was staring at Mr. Flack with his hand upon his cheek and his mouth open, apparently in a sort of stupor, she noticed the drool coming out of the corner of his mouth. She turned her attention back to Mr. Flack, but then found herself slowly shifting into a stupor herself, she felt her eyelids getting heavy and she felt her head slowly falling forward. She jerked her head back and shook it trying to wake up. Of course, she knew this wasn't going to do any good. She put her cheek to her hand and just let herself fall asleep.

Soon Tracy was dreaming. Different colors and images swirled around in her mind till they finally formed a fuzzy sort of frame. She saw herself walking down a long dark hallway. She was alone.

"Hello? Anyone here?" she called. There was no answer. She kept on walking.

Tracy noticed pictures of strange looking people on the walls. It seemed to her that the eyes of these people were following her, but she just shook off that feeling. She swallowed hard and continued walking down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, she noticed a big door with light coming out from underneath it. Her curiosity piqued and she decided to go look at it.

Her pace quickened, as did her heartbeat. She felt like she shouldn't be walking down the hallway at all. But she also felt like she had to go see what was behind that door. Tracy suddenly had that feeling that she was being followed. She turned around and looked behind her, but she didn't see anyone.

"Hmm…guess it's just my imagination."

She continued walking towards the door. The walk felt like it was getting longer and longer and she was never going to get to that door. She walked a little faster to the point where she was almost jogging, but not quite.

Tracy got to the door and put her hand on the knob. She suddenly pulled her hand back because it felt extremely hot. The knob suddenly turned a bright red-orange and began to glow, as if it was on fire. She shook her head and it was glowing no longer.

"That's strange." She thought.

She put her hand on the knob but didn't feel the heat this time. She slowly opened the door and found the room dark.

"Weird, I thought there was a light on in here."

Suddenly a light turned on.

"Than…w-w-who's that?"

"No one. Get out."

"B-b-but I d-d-don't know how…," she said trembling. Tracy could feel her knees knocking together.

"Than I'll force you out," said the voice.

Tracy gulped, and turned to go out, but the door was shut and locked tight.

"I told you to get out!"

"But I can't." Tracy said with more strength in her voice.

Tracy suddenly felt a hot breath on her neck. She turned around and saw a shadowy figure that made her feel like she was glued to the floor.

"W-w-who are y-y-you?"

The figure said nothing, it just floated there.

Tracy stood there facing it. She felt the need to run but she couldn't.

"Why can't I move?"

"Because I need you here."

"Why?"

"Because I need to eat."

"Eat?"

"Yes eat. I feed on human flesh. And I am VERY hungry right now."

Tracy felt her pulse increase and sweat beads form across her forehead. She needed to run, but she couldn't.

"Mmmm! So hungry!"

The voice sounded like it was ravishing.

Tracy suddenly found the strength in her legs and started to run like she never ran before. The door flew open when she came to it. She ran and ran down the hallway. The one thing she didn't count on happening was tripping on the rug. She was almost to the door at the end of the hallway so she could leave this place when she tripped and fell on her face.

"BLOOD! I SMELL BLOOD" raged the voice.

Tracy felt blood trickle down her chin and she knew she had bit into her lip.

The figure descended down upon her.

"FEAST! I MUST FEAST!"

Tracy screamed as she felt her body go into blackness and the figure beginning to eat her.

She suddenly heard a voice

"Mrs. Turnblad! Mrs. Turnblad!"

Tracy awoke with a start and looked around. She found that she had fallen on the floor and was covered with sweat. Apparently, her dream had caused her to fall out of her seat and onto the floor into a hysterical fit.

"What's going on?"

"Did you fall asleep again in my class?"

She heard the rest of the class giggle silently and she felt her face redden.

"Yes sir."

Mr. Flack wrote on a slip of paper and handed it to her and said "Detention Mrs. Turnblad."

She sighed and got up and gathered her books and left to go to detention. Her dream made her feel scared, but of course, she knew that dreams weren't real, and after all, there wasn't really anything to be afraid of.


	2. It's the Link Larkin Show!

**A/N: So I thought of this little goodie when I was lying down a little bit ago because my side hurt, but my side is feeling better. It's the Parody/Comedy part of the challenge. And you guys are so incredibly lucky that I have such an active brain today. The only thing I don't technically own is Link. Otherwise, everything else is made up. Enjoy! R&R as usual! And I know the ending is really weird, sorry about that.** **Anyways, enjoy.**

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Chapter 2: "It's the Link Larkin Show!"

Link was tired. It had been a long and strenuous day. All of his classes were long and boring, and all of his teachers had seemed to want to stuff a lot of information into his head, which he didn't particularly liked. Then after a long day of classes, he had a very long rehearsal for _The Corny Collins Show_. The new station manager was nice, certainly much nicer than Mrs. VonTussle had been, but he worked them way harder and longer than she ever did. Everyone was at the end of their rope by the end of the rehearsal. He was very glad to go home and go to bed.

The bus dropped him off at the corner near his house and he waved goodbye to the remaining kids and walked home. He opened the door and mumbled a hello to his father who was in his favorite easy chair reading the evening paper.

"Hi son. You're home late."  
"Yeah, sorry about that. Mr. Jones kept us later than usual. He was running several new moves with us and wanted them to be perfect."

"Did you have a good day?"

"It was okay I guess."

"Learn anything interesting in school today?"

"Not really. All of my classes were long and boring today."

"Sorry to hear that. I want you to tell me something you learned interesting tomorrow. Okay?"

"Yes sir."

Link yawned.

"May I just have a sandwich and then go to bed?"

"As long as you take a shower afterwards Son. You smell bad."

Link chuckled. "Yes sir."

"Goodnight son."

"'Night dad."

Link went into the kitchen and got out the bread from the storage garage and he got some bologna, cheddar cheese, ketchup, mustard, lettuce and tomato from the fridge. He thought for a moment and decided that some peanut butter would be good too. He made his sandwich and chowed down. He felt a lot better after he had something to eat.

He trudged upstairs to the bathroom and took a quick shower and then went to his room. He pulled back the covers and got in. He sighed happily, his bed felt so warm and his pillow felt so comfortable and soft. Link immediately drifted off to sleep, and started dreaming.

His dream started off being very normal. In his dream, he walked into the WYZT studio, went to his dressing room, and got ready for the show. This is when things started getting a little weird. He dreamed that the new station manager, Mr. Jones, came into talk to him about the schedule for today's show.

"Ok Link, here's the run-down for the show today. We're doing roll-call like normal, same order as usual, except since we added Steve in as our new council member, we're going to introduce him last, you know who Steve is right? Good. Then we're going to introduce the dance of the day, which is the 'Wavin' Raven', which you know how to do right? Good. And then we'll do a quick commercial break, and then we'll have a solo from Alvin, featuring Susie and Cruiser as our feature dancers for that spot, then we have another group dance, followed by another quick commercial, another solo spot with Rob and Cindy as the dancers here, and then we do a final group dance, we wrap up and then we do final roll call. Got it? Good." And then he left.

Link sat there for a moment processing it all. He decided that he would make sure Steve knew his way around the set, being a new kid was always so weird. You always felt so intimidated by the kids who had been there longer and were used to the whole set up.

Link walked down the hallway to the boys dressing room and scoped it out for a moment trying to find the black sheep in the heard of white ones. He spotted Steve almost immediately in the corner by himself.

He walked over and introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Link, you must be Steve, the new council member."

Steve looked up at him and gaped at him like a fish.

Link smiled.

"It's okay, there's no reason to be nervous. Well, I'm sure you might have a reason, but in all actuality there's really no reason to be nervous."

Steve just nodded at him.

"If you need anything my dressing room is down the hall."

Steve nodded again.

"Alvin. When you get a chance, show Steve around the studio. Okay?"

"Yes sir."

"And Cruiser, tuck in your shirt."

"Yes sir."

Link felt good about the new kid. He thought that within time he would feel comfortable and feel at home.

Link walked down the hallway to check on the girls.

"Girls, we're going to be warming up shortly."

Susie, a brunette, walked over to Link.

"Hi Link."

Link just stared at her. He knew Susie had a thing for him, but he wasn't going to let her tempt her.

"Hi Susie."

"So, I was wondering if we could get together after the show and…"

"Susie, no. I'm older than you and would get in trouble if you tried anything with me. So just forget about it."

And he walked out.

"Women." He muttered under his breath.

A few minutes later, all the kids were gathered on their sound stage.

"Alright kids. Lets have a good show. And I also wanted to introduce you to our newest council member, Steve. So lets all try and make him feel welcome alright? Now, Mr. Jones here is going to give you a run down of the schedule for today."

And with that Mr. Jones had the floor.

The show ran fairly smoothly, there were a few hiccups with the dances but for the most part everything worked out well. And Steve seemed to be fitting in just fine. Link had changed clothes and was just about to head home for the day when he heard someone calling him.

"Link. Time to get up."

The voice felt distant.

"Link. It's time for school."

He sat up and looked around

"Whazat'?"

"Link. Come on, Up and at em'. Come down stairs for breakfast son."

Link looked around and realized he was in his room and not at the station, which he was very grateful for.

He got dressed and headed down the stairs for breakfast. His father was already at the table drinking coffee and reading the morning paper.

"Morning son."

Link yawned.

"Morning pops."

"Good dream last night?"  
"It was strange."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I dreamed I was the host of _The Corny Collins Show_, except it was called _The Link Larkin Show_."

"Hmmm…interesting."

"Yeah, it was."

There was an awkward moment of silence.

"Well son, better get a move on. Don't want you to be late for school."

"Right."

"Have a good day at school and I'll see you after the show."

"Bye."

And with that Link went off to school.


	3. Wagons Ho!

**A/N: Alright! I strike again! Thanks so much to the lovely hippogrifftraner for betaing this for me! 3 And for giving me the twirling of the gun idea! This is the 3rd chapter of the Challenge and as you probably guessed from the title, it's a Western! Which was a lot of fun writing. And just to claify if I haven't before, I own nothing. And yes, I was thinking of "Lonsome Dove" while naming the horse. And also, the line "If you want to call me that, smile." actually did come from the show "The Virginian". And Mr. Hill is a character from there too. I don't remember his first name though. So anyways, enough of my blabbing, here's the 3rd chapter. And as always, please R&R! :)**

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Chapter 3: "Wagons Ho!"

Amber had a secret. She had a lot of secrets of course, but if this one ever found its way around school, she'd never hear the end of it. Every Wednesday night Amber would sit on the couch from 7:30 to 9:00 watching her favorite TV show, "The Virginian". She loved it! It was a relatively new show, but nevertheless, she found it exciting. And she thought that James Drury, who played the titles character, was very handsome. She would set and stare at the screen in rapture. Amber had always liked Westerns, she liked watching "Gunsmoke" sometimes, but she didn't think it was nearly as good as this new show was.

It was Thursday, Amber was in English, which she didn't care for very much, she wasn't too fond of grammar, which they always seemed to be learning about. Today's lesson was over deconstructing sentences. Why on Earth she needed to learn how to do that, she didn't know, and she didn't really care either. She was bored and decided to just not listen anymore. Her thoughts started turning to last night's episode of "The Virginian". In this particular episode, Tampas saw a poster for Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" and decided to try to go join them. He goes south to join them and meets some interesting characters along the way, eventually he decided that it wasn't for him and went back to the Shiloh Ranch in Wyoming. Amber found this episode particularly interesting because there were some good fight scenes in the episode, and that's what she really liked about the Westerns, but she didn't want to admit to anyone that she liked the fighting. What would they think of her? Her hard-earned reputation would be ruined! While thinking of the episode she started daydreaming.

Amber imagined herself at the Shiloh Ranch. She saw herself in the barn, tending to the horses. She wore a plain blue gingham dress and work boots, so her feet wouldn't hurt so bad if they got stepped on by a horse or a cow. That's when she heard the commotion. Amber looked out to the pasture and saw a man on a chocolate brown horse and a huge cloud of dirt behind him.

"Get out of here miss!"

"Why? What's going on?"

"The Roberts Gang is coming through!"

"The Roberts Gang?"

"Yes miss, now you need to get out of here before you get hurt!"

"Where do I go?"

"Grab a horse and ride North, they're comin' from the East and will most likely be headin' to the West and to the South."

"If you're sure Mr. Hill."

"I'm damn sure miss."

"But what about…"

"No time for question miss. You need to get going!"

Amber did what she was told. She got the horse that was closest to her and jumped on it. She assumed there wasn't time to properly saddle and bridle the horse from what Mr. Hill had just told her.

Amber galloped north. She wasn't too sure where she was going or what to do. Amber came to a fork in the road, both veered around a canyon wall, she tried to decide which way to take but didn't know, she looked behind her and in the distance she saw a cloud of dust.

"Oh dear! Is that who I think it could be?"

Amber began to panic. She didn't know which way to go. She closed her eyes quickly and "eneeiy-meeny-minney-moed" quickly to decide which way to go. When she opened she saw her finger pointing towards the left fork. She urged her horse that way and galloped on. She glanced behind her every so often and still saw the cloud of dust following her. Amber knew that it wasn't from her own horse so she assumed it was from her pursuer. She didn't want to take any sort of chances of who it might be. She saw a good-sized rock ahead of her and tried to get her horse to go that way. The problem was the horse was tired and didn't really want to go that way.

"Come on Dove! Go to that rock."

The horse turned to look at her and gave her an indignant sort of look.

"I know you don't want to go over there, but there's someone behind us and we need to hide."

Dove snorted and slowly walked to the rock and stood behind it. Amber patted Dove's head and jumped down.

"Quite girl."

Amber peeked her head carefully around the rock, watching the cloud of dust grow closer. She squinted her eyes to see if she could distinguish who it was. She was having difficulty, but she could tell from the size of the dust cloud that there were many riders. She guessed it was the Roberts gang, and her guess was correct.

"I know I saw someone come this way."

"Sniff around Frank. I'm sure they're hiding behind a rock or something."

Amber held her breath and she put her hand over Dove's muzzle to make sure she kept quite.

She heard boots clunking around on the rocky dirt.

"I ain't findin' anyone Quimby!"

"Well keep a' lookin' Frank!"

They kept getting closer to Amber's hiding place.

"Hey Quimby! I found hoof prints here!"

"Good find Frank!"

They hunched over and followed the footprints to where Amber was hiding.

"Well looky here Frank! We gots ourselves a lil' girly." Quimby sneered at her.

"She's awful purty ain't she Quimby!"

"She shore is Frank."

Amber began to panic. What was she going to do?

"What you say we take her back with us. Maybe she can tell us where the rest of 'er lil' _friends_ are a hidin'."

Amber did the only thing she could do. She screamed. She screamed loud and long and clear. Dove bolted away at the scream. She headed back to the only place she knew, which was the ranch.

Frank and Quimby picked up Amber and threw her over their shoulders. Amber began to pound them on the back.

"Put me down you…you…FREAKS!"

"Oh freaks are we? We gots ourselves a wirey one here Frank!"

They lifted her up and set her down on the horse.

"Get on up there with her Frank."

Frank straddled the horse with himself in front.

"Hold onto my back sweetie, we're going for a wild ride! YEE-HAW!"

Amber just glared at him. While she didn't want to touch him because he was so sleazy, he had a point, she didn't want to fall off the horse either. She grabbed onto his back, but not very hard, because afterall, he was a gang member, and probably was in desperate need of a bath.

They galloped back to the ranch.

"Alright sweetie. You show us where your little friends are and you ain't gonna get yourself hurt."

Amber glared at Quimby.

"I will have no such pleasure in showing you or telling you anything. And if you want to call me that, smile."

"Well if that's the way you want it sweetie."

Quimby smiled and reached into his holster. Amber panicked again.

"I'ma gonna gives you to the count of three to tell me where your little friends are, or I'm going to blow you to smithereens."

Amber reached down into her dress pocket. She felt a small pistol in there. She always had one on her for emergencies such as this.

"Alright Quimby, I'll play your little game." She sneered at him this time.

He gave her a quizzical look.

"My little game?"

"Yes, your little game."

"What'cho have in your pocket lil' sweetie."

"Oh, nothing."

"Nothing eh'?"

"That's right. Nothing."

Quimby put on a half-smile.

"Well I ain't playin' no games sweetie."

"Alright then. I'll have it your way. Make my day."

She reached into her pocket and whipped out her pistol.

"Oh ho ho. You're going to have it this way then? Frank count to three!"

They both squinted their eyes down at each other.

"Alright. You know how it goes. When I get to one, shoot."

"3…"

They both twirled their guns.

"2…"

They cocked the trigger.

"1…"

They pulled the trigger and…

"Miss VonTussle!"

"Yes?"

Amber was brought back from her daydream.

"I've asked you several times, where should this verb go?"

Amber looked at the blackboard. She saw a sentence with lots of circles and lines on it. She hadn't been paying attention so she didn't really know what was going on.

"I don't know ma'am."

"Well then, I guess you'll have to go to detention."

Amber was shocked and indignant. Her? Detention?! Never in her life! She clenched her fists and stomped out of the room.

She walked down to the detention room. She wasn't very happy at all. Amber got to the door and knocked. The teacher proctoring the room came to the door and opened it.

"I need your detention slip."

"Slip? I don't need no stinkin' slip!"


	4. Mob Business

**A/N: Woohoo! Another chapter up! This is the only one that isn't going to be in dream form. I didn't think it would work very well in dream form, so yeah. And a couple of words are spelled wrong on purpose, especially when Green is talking. And as always, I don't own anything. And I'm also super sad that i'm almost done with this challenge! It's been a whole lot of fun! So as always, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review! I love reviews more than I love hits! Enjoy! :)**

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Chapter 4: Mob Business

Seaweed was walking home when he heard his name being called.

"Seaweed! Hey Seaweed!"

He turned his around and saw his friend Tyrone running to catch up with him.

"What's going on Ty?"

"You want to come play some basketball with us?"

"I can't man, my mom is making me watch Inez this afternoon."

"That stinks man. Can't you get out of it?"

"No. Sorry man."

"Aw, that's ok. Maybe later?"

"Yeah, I'll try, you know how my mom can be though."

"True. See you later man."

"Bye Ty."

Seaweed walked towards his house. He was disappointed that he couldn't play ball with his friends, but he understood that he held a responsibility to the household, seeing as he was the only man of the house. Seaweed was almost home when he tripped over something on the sidewalk.

"Ow! What the heck was that?"

He picked himself up and brushed off the dust from his clothes and looked down and saw a small black bag.

"What could this be?"

He opened it up and saw fistfuls of cash thrown in the bag.

"Woah!"

Seaweed's eyes grew wide. He never had this much money before. Seaweed began thinking of all the things he could do with the money, like buy comic books and go to the diner and buy milkshakes and take Penny to the movies and out to dinner some place nice. He was thinking about all this and more when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey kid! Where'd you get that bag?"

There was a rough looking man of about 55, he about six feet tall and rather stout.

"I said, where did you get that bag?"

"I just tripped over it."

"A likely story!"

"I did man!"

"Tell it to my boss!"

"Your boss?"

"Yeah, my boss. You got a problem with that kid?"

"No sir. Not at all."

"Good. Follow me."

Seaweed rolled his eyes. Whatever line of work this guy was in her wasn't very bright and he wasn't very good at it.

The man led Seaweed down an ally way close to his house. Seaweed had seen this ally way several times but had never wandered down it. He just never bothered with it, because he didn't think it led anywhere. He now knew otherwise and made a mental note to never come down this way again. They stopped in front of a wooden fence. The guy rapped on the gate with his second knuckle three times, with his fist two times, and with his palm once. Seaweed gave him a look.

"Secret knock."

"Ah."

The gate opened.

"Kunckles, who did you bring us today?"

"Just a kid Green."

"A kid? That's it?"

"Yeah, well I found him with the bag."

"Good job Knuckles."

"So kid, come on in."

Seaweed walked in the gate a little further. He saw another man who was shorter than the first, he was roughly the same age, and even fatter than the first man.

"Now tell me, how did you happen upon this bag?"

"Well…" Seaweed began, he wasn't sure if this Green man was going to believe him, but it was worth a shot. "I was walking down the sidewalk and I tripped over it."

Green stared at him.

"You're kidding right?"

"No sir. I just tripped over it."

Green looked highly disappointed.

"You didn't steal it or nothing?"

"No."

"Damn."

Seaweed wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he figured it wasn't exactly good whatever it was.

"Look, can I go home now? I have my sister to look after and…"

"Oh! You got a family?"

"Yeah…Doesn't everyone?"

"Well yes, but you see, in the mob business we have…an extended family."

The mob business? What had Seaweed gotten himself into, is all he did was trip over a bag of money.

"Wait, wait, wait. Back up here. Mob business?"

"That's right. You see that bag you tripped over? It's very important to us."

"Why?"

Green rolled his eyes like he couldn't believe Seaweed didn't know why it was important.

"It's a long story kid."

"It's ok. I've got time."

Green pulled back a chair at the desk he was sitting at.

"Sit."

Seaweed sat.

"Now, this all happened a long while back. It started two bosses ago. I was a new member of our family ya see. I was asked to do this task, to become an official family member."

"What was the task?" Seaweed asked.

"I'm gittin' to it! I'm gittin' to it! Keep your shirt on kid!"

Knuckles stood behind Seaweed and looked at him menacingly. Seaweed smirked, this guy couldn't hurt him even if he wanted to.

"Knuckles, back off the kid would ya!"

Knuckles backed away from Seaweed.

"So as I was sayin'. I had to do this task ya see. It involved a lot of our other family members from other branches. See, we have this rival family, the Buttkicks."

"The Buttkicks?"

"The Buttkicks is what I said kid. Are ya gonna let me tell my story or not?"

"Go on. Sorry."

"You better be."

Knuckles cracked his knuckles.

"Knuckles. What did I say about the kid?"

"Right. Sorry boss."

"So, as I was sayin' before ya yap interrupted me. The Buttkicks are our rival family, so we have to steal somethin' from 'em to prove ourselves and enter into the final initiation stages. It's all very complicated as you can see."

"Right. Complicated." Seaweed just nodded along.

"Well, on the night of this initiation things started to go wrong, we were led to the wrong hideout and ended up at the bank, we robbed the bank and managed to get away before the coppers got to us. So we've had this bag of money ever since my first night as an official family member, and if sometin' ever happened to it I would be very upset. Ya' see?"

"I see alright. But my question is, is how did it end up with me? Who could've left it lying on the sidewalk."

"That is exactackly what I want to know."

"Well, I was a tinkin' that you could help us with figurin' it out."

"Me?" The mob was the last thing that Seaweed needed to get involved in.

"Look, I would love to help but…"

"But what?"

"But I've got my own family to take care of and I have school and friends and…"

"Look, I ain't askin' for ya to become a perment member of our family, just temporarly."

Seaweed thought it over for a few minutes. It was only temporary…

"Alright. Tell me what I have to do."

Green smiled.

"Alright kid. This is what ya have to do…"

Seaweed couldn't believe he was sitting in jail. One moment he was standing on the sidewalk just holding the bag of money, that he accidently tripped over, and the next he's sitting with a mob boss, and then the next, he was sitting in jail! How was he ever going to explain this to his mom? She was never going to believe him. That's when he heard her.

"Stephen James Stubbs you have better have a good explanation for this."

Maybelle Stubbs' eyes had never looked colder and her mouth had never looked straighter.

"Well mom…"

"Go on, I'm waiting."

"What would you say if I told you that I accidently tripped over a bag of money and then finding myself helping a mob boss?"

"That you were grounded from this moment till you graduate."


	5. Penny's Mystery

**A/N: Well, here's the final chapter. I hope ya'll have enjoyed reading this. This was a lot of fun to write. Thanks KR for suggesting we do this, and thanks HT for all the comments. And thanks to all the wonderful readers out there, or the wonderful clickers out there who at least looked at it, even if you didn't read it. And I can honestly say I do not own a single thing out of this chapter, there are no made up characters in this one. They are all prewritten characters by someone else. But, I do happen to own "The Hidden Staircase" (in fact it's the only Nancy Drew I own). And if you haven't guessed already, this is the Mystery part of the challenge, and the last one was spossed to be Crime. So, here ya go. Thanks again for reading and whatnot, and remember to REVIEW this. :) and also be looking out for new chapters in my other fics. Hopefully I'll get caught up on them this weekend, otherwise, be looking out for new OneShots or something, because I'll probably get another idea for one soon. Anyways, i'm done rambling and I really need to go to bed now...So i'm going to stop rambling and go to bed and I'm going to let you read this and REVIEW it. :)**

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Chapter 5-"Penny's Mystery"

Penny sat in the chair pretending to read her Bible. Her mother made her sit every evening reading the dreaded book. She hated reading it. So, instead she was reading a Nancy Drew mystery. Her mother would never allow the books, too much filth was in them. Apparently, there was too much sexuality content in them, but Penny knew otherwise.

Penny was highly engrossed in the book. Nancy was just about to crack the case when her mother caught her attention.

"Penny!"

Penny jumped at the sound of her name.

"Yes mother?"

"I asked you if you were almost done with your reading. I want you to go take your bath and go to bed."

Penny looked at the clock, it was almost eight o'clock. She felt like such a baby that she had to go take a bath and then go to bed straight afterwards, but she figured she could stay up a little bit later and read her book this way.

"Yes mother."

"Good. I want you to finish within the next five minutes."

Penny glanced down at her Bible. She figured she could read a verse or two and that would cover the time allotted, but she would have to be sneaky and hide her book. She carefully slid the book out and flipped a few pages back, like she was looking something up and slipped the book back into the Bible. She nonchalantly flipped back to the page she was on and read dreayly. Penny was always so bored by these readings. She didn't really have any interest in religion, but her mother had forced it into her.

Penny's mind started to drift towards her book. She had just started to read the Nancy Drew series, Tracy had recommended them to her and told her they were really good. Penny of course had to try them. She was only on the second one though, this one was called "Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase". In this book, Nancy has some friends who believe that their mansion is haunted, she is told that odd things have been happening, a precious pin has been stolen and canneries have been getting in and out of the house on their own. She goes to help her friends and she goes to some property next door, owned by a Nathan Gomber, and accidently falls through a trap door and finds a secret tunnel that leads to the mansion next door. She had just gotten to the part where Nancy is telling her friends about this trap door and they've decided that they need to go investigate.

Penny could feel her eyelids growing heavy. Reading the Bible always seemed so cumbersome and she would much rather be reading her book right now. She was trying to decide what was going to happen next in the story. Were Nancy and friends going to sneak through the tunnel and find out what has been causing all their problems? Penny hoped so. The story was getting so exciting. She could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier with each eye drift over the page. She felt her mind getting father and father away from what she was supposed to be focusing on. She tried shaking her head, but that didn't really do much good. Penny heard her mother snap at her.

"Penny! Have you finished your reading?"

"Yes mother."

"Good. Now go take your bath and go to bed."

Penny padded up the steps and took a quick shower and then went into her room and got into bed. She knew to hold off on her book for a few minutes because her mother would come in and check on her and tell her to go to bed quickly. A few minutes later Prudy poked her head in Penny's room to check on her and tell her goodnight. Penny waited till she heard her mothers footsteps completely fade away and reached for her book. She opened it up and read hungrily for a few minutes, but she felt her eyelids grow heavy again. She put the book down and turned her lamp off and fell into a heavy sleep.

Penny started to dream. She dreamed that she was in a mansion very similar to the one in the book. Penny walked into the mansion; it felt cold, dark, and big.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" she called out.

She heard a voice callout.

"We're here, in the parlor."

Penny walked down the hall a ways looking for the person that matched the voice. She got to the parlor and felt someone squeezing her.

"Oh thank goodness you're here Penny!"

"Yes, thank goodness you are. There are some very strange things going on here."

They reached out their hands and shook Penny's hands. She of course returned the shake but looked back and forth between the two.

"I'm sorry if this seems rude, but who are you?"

"Oh we're terribly sorry! I'm Rosemary, and this is my sister Floretta."

"I'm Penny."

"Well very nice to meet you Penny. That's such a beautiful name."

"Thank you. I like it too. Now, might I ask why you called me here?"

"Well" Floretta answered, "A lot of strange things have been going on here."

"Such as?"

"My favorite brooch has gone missing. I know I left it in my jewelry box last night, and then when I went to go and put it on this morning, it was gone."

"Hmmm…interesting. What else has been going on?"

"We've been having a strange occurrence of canaries flying in and out of our house. It happens every few hours."

"Every few hours?"

"Yes. Every few hours."

"Interesting. Anything else?"

"We've also been hearing strange noises in the middle of the night, coming from out here I think."

"What kind of strange noises?"

"A sort of scraping and scratching noise. Is that what it is Flora?"

"Yes, I would say so."

Penny was writing these things down as she questioned them.

"Scraping…and…scratching…okay. Anything else?"

"Can you think of anything Rose?"

"No, I don't think so Flora."

"Well ladies, I think the best I can do would to be stay here for at least a day and gather some initial observations, is that alright with you?"

"Oh of course it is Penny. We love having company!"

"Wonderful!"

Penny began to settle into the house. The sisters loved to play cards. They spent a lot of time playing Canasta, which Penny had never played before, but was enjoying now.

"I've never played this game before."

"You haven't?" asked Rosemary.

"No. I haven't. But I'm enjoying it very much so."

They played awhile longer when Penny heard a fluttering of wings and a coo of a bird. She looked up and saw a canary.

"Is that one of the canaries you mentioned?"

The sisters looked up.

"Yes, it is."

"I think it's going somewhere. Look."

The bird flew out the room and to the staircase. It fluttered around for a bit and then landed on the floor, and disappeared.

"Where did it go?" exclaimed Penny.

"That's the problem. They always land here and we never know where they go." Replied Flora.

"Interesting. Would you mind if I poked around here a little bit?"

"No, go right ahead and do all the poking that you need to."

Penny got down to her hands and knees and began to feel around. Her hand came to a notch in the floor.

"I found a notch here, it almost feels like a handle."

Penny groped around a little more and decided that she could attempt to lift the panel.

"I think I might be able to open this. Would someone care to help me, I think this is too heavy for me to lift on my own."

"We can try sweetie, but I don't think we're going to be any better at it than you are."

"Well maybe between the three of us we can get it open."

"That sounds like a good possibility."

They all got on the floor and grasped the handle.

"On three ladies."

"One…"

"Two…."

"Three!"

They pulled and pushed as hard as they could and managed to lift the panel up. And to their surprise they found another staircase.

"Well would you look at this Flora! There is a staircase beneath our house."

"That there is Rose."

Penny leaned over a bit to investigate it more. She couldn't see very far, she could tell that it was dark, and rather chilly.

"Well, do we want to see where this leads? Maybe it could help in figuring out where your pin went and where all these birds and the sounds are coming from."  
"That sounds like a good idea."

Penny went to her bag and grabbed a flashlight out from it.

"So we can see where we're going."

"Good thinking Penny."

Penny turned on the light and slowly went down the steps, avoiding the cobwebs and loose stone.

"I think it's okay, just a little bit of cobwebs and loose stone here, so be careful."

They walked down deeper and deeper. It was at least fifty steps down to the very bottom.

"It looks as if there is a short walkway here."

Penny shone her flashlight on up further ahead, it looked like another staircase.

"I think there's another staircase on up here just a little ways."

"Oh all of these stairs! I don't think my heart can take it Penny."

"Oh Rose! Stop being so over dramatic!" replied Flora.

They walked down the pathway and up the stairs. It felt like a long time to go up the stairs.

"Almost there. I see another panel on up."

Penny got up to the panel and pushed all her weight onto it and walked into a room that was very similar to the other mansion.

"This looks almost exactly like our mansion doesn't it Rose?"

"It does Flora."

Penny looked around.

"I wonder…"

"You wonder what?"

Penny never got a chance to say what she was wondering because all of the sudden a large shadow crept over them.

"Yes little girl, you wonder what?"

"I don't wonder anymore, I know I came into the wrong house, and I was…"

"You were what? Going to leave? I don't think so."

Penny looked behind her and saw just Rose left with her. Rose gave her a look like she didn't know.

"You know, I think you and your friend here shouldn't leave, so why don't you go sit down in that chair over there and I'll make sure you don't leave."

Penny and Rose sat down in the chairs that the man indicated to and he tied them up.

"There, now you aren't going anywhere for awhile."

Than they heard a loud knock on the door.

"Sir. I need you to open the door. It's the police."

The man got a panicked look in his eyes. He started to run around, looking for a place to hide, but he tripped. The police made their way inside, with the help of Flora, and untied Penny and Rose.

"Thank you Flora."

"You're welcome Penny."

"I'm sorry I didn't get you your brooch back."

"Oh but you did. You caught this man, Mr. Gomber, here and of course he was the one sending the birds and he was the one that stole my brooch, so you got it back for me."

Flora rubbed Penny's back in appreciation.

"But I think we've got everything covered here, so now you can just wake up."

"Wake up?"

"Yes. Wake up. It's time for school."

Penny sat up and looked around. She was in her own room and in her own bed and her mother was standing over her not looking pleased.

"What's going on?"

"What did I tell you about these books?" Prudy held up her book. Penny turned red with the look of guilt on her face.

"I thought so. You will be punished when you get home today."

Penny groaned. If only someone could figure out the mystery of why she got punished so often.


End file.
